Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Making a Facsimile Cover in Leather

A local scientist wanted one of his many contributions to the study of moths to be leather bound. We decided to do a facsimile of the original paper cover in Siegel's fair goat. The front was fairly straightforward (if time consuming) work on the stamping press using a variety of foils and fonts. The spine was more difficult. I build the majority of my covers on the book which means all spine work must be done by hand. I printed out the text and then used my handle letters warm to impress each individual letter through the paper onto the spine. I then went over these impressions with the foil. I had to be gentle with the tool, using a light hand to allow the tool to nestle into the impression before applying the pressure necessary to print. I quite liked the final result which reminded me of old French paperbacks.

About Me

Michael Greer is the owner of Leatherbound Book Works, a traditional bindery with a twist. The bindery repairs, restores and rebinds books, but we also turn electronic documents and blogs into leather bound books, combining the best of the digital age with the timelessness of the traditional book.